Jon and I went separate places. His tour was more demanding than I wanted.
Jon thought I was going to see a billabong, maybe even get to hold one or feed one or at least take a picture of one. You, unlike Jon, know that a billabong is “a branch of a river forming a backwater or stagnant pool, made by water flowing from the main stream during a flood.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Jon also didn’t know that Billabong is a line of clothing. You know, the kind of stuff you see at the beach, worn by someone whose mother wouldn’t approve.
We started at the top of Castle Hill where we were able to have a 360-degree view of Townsville. I am putting together videos so look for them when I post the link to the video. The video will cover several days at a time.
We then went to Billabong Sanctuary. It is a little zoo where we were able to have up close encounters with several animals. The first was a small crocodile and yes, I was able to hold it. At the end of the tour, we saw the full-grown crocodile having a meal of a bird and no, I did not come close to him. We also saw an Australian python and had the opportunity to hold it, but I ran out of time and only touched it.
Next, we saw a Wombat that weighed 28 – 29 KG and yes, he is a little overweight. They like them to be 25 kg. They like to eat gingkoes.
Now on to the Koala where we watched him move around the pen area. Yes, they are very cute. You just want to hug them.
After this we were able to get into the pen with a Koala and have our picture taken with him. He was holding tight to the tree and his nose was nestled in the crook of the tree.
The final event was the crocodile feeding I mentioned before. Along the way I took pictures of various birds and ducks I came upon. As I walked back, I went into the Kangaroo Corral and saw several. The cutest one standing did not stay still long enough for me to get my camera open, read the screen in the sun and turn back around. Oh, where did he go? He was on the other side back to me. Oh well!
I was very pleased with this tour. They appear to take care of the animals. They are not using the same animals for the demonstrations. They rotate them so they are only exposed once or twice a week I think they said.
